Molise Geography & Climate

Molise is small, steep and oriented from the mountains to the sea, and almost nothing in it is flat.

Structure

The region covers about 4,400 km² — only Aosta Valley is smaller — and roughly 55% of it is classed as mountain, with most of the rest hill. The western border is held by the Matese massif, shared with Campania and rising to 2,050 m at Monte Miletto, and by the Mainarde on the edge of the Abruzzo national park.

From there the land falls east in a series of ridges and valleys to the Adriatic. Two rivers do most of the drainage: the Biferno, the only significant river to rise and reach the sea entirely within one region, and the Trigno on the northern border.

The coast

About 35 km of it, the shortest of any Italian region with a sea. It is mostly low and sandy, with Termoli on the one rocky promontory. Offshore and administratively Puglian, the Tremiti islands are reached from the port here.

The tratturi

Molise's most distinctive landscape feature is man-made. The tratturi are droving roads for transhumance — moving flocks between summer pasture in the Abruzzo mountains and winter grazing in Puglia. The main routes were legally fixed at 111 m wide, and they run as broad green corridors across the region, with smaller tratturelli branching off. They are protected as archaeological monuments, though stretches have been lost to ploughing.

Karst and water

The Matese is limestone, with sinkholes, caves and the high Lago del Matese. Springs on its flanks supply water well beyond the region, and the Biferno was dammed in the 1970s to create Lake Guardialfiera.

Seismic risk

The region lies on the Apennine fault system. The 2002 earthquake at San Giuliano di Puglia was modest in magnitude but caused the collapse of a school, and it led directly to a revision of Italian seismic building classification.

Molise's climate changes faster with distance than almost anywhere else in Italy, because the mountains start within 40 km of the sea.

The coast

Mediterranean and moderate. Summer highs around 29-31 °C, tempered by sea breeze; winters mild at 9-14 °C by day, with rain concentrated between October and March. The sea is swimmable from about mid-June to late September.

Inland and the hills

Continental. Summers are hot in the valleys, often 32-35 °C, with cooler nights. Winters are cold, with frost normal and snow frequent above about 700 m — which covers most of the region's villages.

The mountains

The Matese and the Alto Molise are properly alpine in winter. Capracotta, at 1,421 m, is one of the snowiest inhabited places in the country and recorded an extraordinary snowfall in March 2015 — over two metres in a day, among the highest 24-hour totals ever measured. It has a small ski area and cross-country trails.

Practical notes

• Mountain roads can close in winter, and chains or winter tyres are required from November.
• Spring comes late inland — the high villages can still be under snow in April.
• Packing for a trip that mixes Termoli and Capracotta means packing for two seasons.
• Summer thunderstorms build over the Matese in the afternoons.